Stephen and I planned a massive game a while ago that got derailed by life. Being an adult sucks. However, we finally got together back at good old Game Links in Fowlerville! This game was so long and massive, that I'm only going to show highlights (and lowlights) because otherwise it would be a novel of a battle report.

I squadroned the Devastation class cruisers together and set them on patrol, but Stephen set them up right at the board edge, waiting to be picked off!

Luckily I got first turn. The Devastation class cruisers fired on the Mars and sent 8 assault boats after the Dictator, forcing braces and causing enough critical effects to turn the Dictator into a weaponless rowboat.

Stephen's vengeance was swift, as the rest of his fleet fired and crippled the Pride of Heresy.

Meanwhile, the transports go up one side of the board, escorted by a few ships.

The Devastations provide a distraction as assault boats and boarding torpedoes from the Death of Hope plow into the Enif, causing 12 critical effects, and shutting off all the weapons, and damaging the engines to prevent turns.

Both Infidel squadrons harass the transports.

After the Pride of Heresy disengaged, the Hateful took the brunt of enemy fire. It tried to disengage, failed, and made for the board edge. Sadly, it died from battery fire from the Betelgeuse just before it got away!

Abbadon and the Death of Hope swing around to deal with the transports. The Rampagers take heavy damage from bombers, but one manages to hold on and disengage to prevent from being wiped out.

The Time of Sorrow fires on the Betelgeuse, slowing it down enough that it can't make a turn! The Emperor class ship has a major flaw, being 15cm speed. Meanwhile, the Enif has been unable to repair ANY of its damage, despite rolling 8 dice for three turns!

Bombers from the Death of Hope attack the heavy transport Argosy, causing it to explode!

The Lords of Sin line up behind the transports, reload, and fire torpedoes until all the transports died. It took a while as they were constantly Braced for Impact.

The Enif finally gets its engines fixed, turns, and next turn goes on All Ahead Full to ram torpedoes out of the way of the Betelgeuse! This causes a Bridge Smashed critical, giving the Enif -3 leadership permanently!

In a daring move, the Haven's Revenge goes on All Ahead Full and dives onto the low orbit table!

Torpedoes from the Orbital Platform and fire from the Death of Hope destroy the Admiral's Mars class battlecruiser, centimeters short of being able to go to the low orbit table!

Haven's Revenge scores an assault point, as the remaining Firestorm goes on a SUICIDE DIVE to attack the ground defences! Haven's Revenge is eventually killed by lance fire and bombers in later turns, but it scores a total of 3 assault points.

Bombers from the Death of Hope cripple the Enif.

In a last, desperate gambit reminiscent of Horus, Abbadon has the Death of Hope board the Betelgeuse, causing massive damage and crippling it!

The Enif makes it to the low orbit table! Can it score enough points?

The Betelgeuse finds itself unable to harm the Death of Hope, and Abbadon's re-roll gets the Death of Hope to go on Burn Retros and perform ANOTHER boarding action, destroying the Betelgeuse!

The Enif, beleaguered, finally succumbs after scoring another assault point. Game over.

Planetary Assault is a hard one for the Imperials because they are so slow. A good selection of regular cruisers would have been better than the Emperor and the Avenger that got stuck up early on. Stephen also got really unlucky with the damage repairs on the Avenger, not repairing with a single "6" in three turns of 8 dice! Finally, the all-ordnance Chaos fleet ABSOLUTELY needs Abbadon's re-rolls. I failed several tests, and chose not to re-roll 2 of them (on ground defences), but all that I re-rolled passed. Had this not been, I would not have been pumping out attack craft and torpedoes all over the place. Plus, Abbadon is a NIGHTMARE in boarding.